18 | Special Report POLICE IN CRISIS POOR LEADERSHIP | Commanders do not always act in best interest of their teams Juniors accuse their bosses of exposing them to hardships Poor pay, lack of food and water among the many challenges that those working in insecure areas face BY STELLA CHERONO @stellacherono scherono@ke.nationmedia.com the massacre of 21 police officers and three civilians by bandits in Kasarani on the Kapedo-Lokori road in Turkana East. The officers — most drawn O from the Administration Police — had been sent to the area just days after three General Service Unit officers were killed and their vehicles set ablaze as they were escorting examination papers to Kapedo. An officer who survived the massacre recounting the events of that day to the Daily Nation, said they had been sent to tow the vehicle that had been burnt during the previous attack. “We had been in the company of our commanders, Regular police officers and some leaders from the area and after we had spotted the car and we were strategising on how to tow it, some members of our team including the commander left to patrol Lomelo,” he said. In all, there were about 29 Administration Police officers, police reservists and staff from Toyota Kenya. Just after tying the burnt vehicle for towing, they were attacked by bandits, who sprayed their vehicle with bullets. It was around 3pm. “We were surrounded by hundreds of bandits without our knowledge. They had been hiding in the thickets and we only heard their voices when they were shouting as they shot at us,” the officer said. He said only survived because he hid under the police vehicle and played dead until the gunshots went silent and the raiders took guns from the officers. “When everything was silent n the morning of Saturday November 1, 2014, Kenya woke up to the news of DAILY NATION Monday July 6, 2015 We are marking time waiting to retire, say officers CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17 issue. Regular police accuse their counterparts from the General Service Unit of being responsible for brutality in the force because they no longer take the conversion course they used to which allowed them to fit in civilian environments. “They are trained to fight and they do it very well,” said the officer. The unstated expla- nation for a lot of the irrational command decisions appears to be the facilitation of access to the largesse of corruption from the public. Thus many GSU officers have been deployed among regular police officers basically so that they, too, can eat. The AP, who were STEVE NJUGUNAH | NATION Administration Police officers carry the remains of their colleague, Constable Ezekiel Chege, during burial in Losogwa near Nyahururu last November. Ezekiel was among the 20 officers killed by bandits in an ambush at Kapedo. and I was sure the raiders had left, I came out of the vehicle and the sight of my colleagues lying lifeless in pools of blood broke me. Some of those who survived with bullet wounds called out for help. I have never seen police officers that desperate,” he said. He claimed that after the attack, he tried contacting the other police officers who left the scene earlier but without success. “Together with three officers who were hurt but still able to communicate, we called all the commanders whose contacts we had. At that point, some officers were in critical condition and we thought they could still be saved but they all died later,” the officer recalled. For the next 25 hours, the of- ficers called for help using their phones and official radio communication equipment in vain. Officers at police headquarters at Vigilance House received the report almost immediately the bandits left the area. One of the four officers who had been making the calls for help later died. Every operation is headed by an Operation Commander. However, not all commanders accompany their teams to the ground. One officer deployed to Ka- pedo said that besides lacking the equipment they need to combat bandits, officers in operation zones have to make do with ageing vehicles. “When we are given new vehicles, the bosses use them for their missions,” said the officer. He said that their commander, a Superintendent of Police, never set foot in Kapedo when the operation was ongoing. “He was always in Nairobi or his home area with the official vehicle. He was not even aware of what we were going through and he was not familiar with the Sh2,000 What each officer was promised as daily allowances when they went to work in Kapedo but they were not paid the full amount. situation on the ground. Junior officers do not report anything to the police headquarters for fear of victimisation,” he said. According to him, the officers were promised Sh2,000 per day but this pledge is seldom honoured. New recruits often bear the brunt and only receive a small fraction of their entitlement. “It is not easy here. We have to cook for ourselves and sometimes the food delays and we have to rely on what we have in our pockets. The hardest part is having to go for patrols without food. And for you to eat, you have to collect firewood and cook for yourselves. Again, it is a risky affair because the bandits walk in large numbers and they are always after our guns. To get the guns, they have to kill you before you kill them,” the officer said. Besides food, water is also a problem and the officers have to go for long distances to get their supplies. They are routinely denied days off largely because they are understaffed and their commanders are not always available to grant them leave. generally treated as servants by their bosses in the provincial administration wanted more dignified work. They are now deployed alongside regular officers, though they have different uniforms and are trained to fight in the jungles. “It is not clear what the duties of the AP are,” the officer said. This has given rise to the most serious of all problems: command confusion. In the old system, the Officer Commanding Police Division was the ranking officer in that district. He was senior to everyone else and called the shots. Today, nobody knows who the boss is. There are three bosses in every county: one from the AP, another from the regular police and a third one from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations. The regular police boss has more responsibilities and may be required to command the others, but he is not necessarily the most senior officer. In Narok, the County Commander is a Senior Superintendent of Police, the AP boss is an Assistant Commissioner of Police. “Sasa nani atapangia mwingine Kazi? (who will assign the other duties?)” the officer asked. But the worst resent- ment is reserved for the National Police Service Commission. “They missed the point. They were supposed to be the voice of the service,” the officer said. Top commanders feel humiliated and disrespected by the way the vetting has been Where in this world have you ever seen police officers being put on the (TV) screen in front of your wife, your children and anyone who matters to you?” Senior officer conducted. They also feel the entire purpose of the process has been lost. Part of the rationale for vetting, they argued, was to make sure that the commanders had the skills and competence to do the job. But they feel they are just being vetted on the contents of their bank accounts. “Where in this world have you ever seen police officers being put on the (TV) screen in front of your wife, your children and anyone who matters to you?” the officer asked. Commanders are also bitter that no one pays attention to their service record, with all questions at vetting being about money. Additional reporting by Fred Mukinda Give us our Sh5.8m allowances, demand officers who BY WYCLIFF KIPSANG @wsang08 wkipsang@ke.nationmedia.com Police officers who were who were early this year sent to restore order in Baringo are accusing their seniors of pocketing more than Sh5.8 million meant for their allowances. The 145 police officers drawn from FILE | NATION Kenya Red Cross volunteers and residents peep into a hut where a family was killed in Nadome in May this year. the General Service Unit, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, the Rapid Deployment Unit, the Rural Border Patrol Unit and the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit, said that each of them was entitled to Sh30,000 in allowances for the operation. “We risked our lives by confront- ing armed bandits, at some point sustaining gunshot wounds only for our seniors to pocket our dues and abandon us in the camps,” said a disgruntled officer who requested not to be identified for fear of victimisation. The officers who were deployed to Kasiela, Kapindasum, Arabal and Chepkalacha claimed that some of their colleagues were paid while others were left out in unclear circumstances. “This is a big syndicate. People are enriching themselves as we languish in the bush,” said another officer. The junior officers said the discrimination was affecting their morale and asked the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Joseph Boinnet, to intervene. Besides what they said were poor working conditions and lack of cooperation from their superiors, the officers claimed that they were receiving meagre food rations, contaminated water and poor sanitation. “Sometimes we run out of water and food supplies and we have to go without food yet we have no cash to purchase items at shopping centres,” said another officer. According to them, no senior officer has ever visited them. “Some of the officers were deployed here for the first time and are yet to visit their families since last year,” la